According to Member for Goulburn Pru Goward, the rebate is a “fantastic initiative”, designed to be a more direct tactic to combat what she stated was a growing problem among Australia’s youth. 

“This is absolutely focused on obesity,” Ms Goward said.

“I mean, one of the reasons our children don’t have the waistlines they used to have – kids used to be little skinny kids, but that’s not true anymore – one of the reasons for that is that they get driven to school, driven home, they spend a lot of time in front of computers.

“This is about just saying ‘we’ll help you get active’. Money must not be an impediment.”

The initiative will afford school-aged children in NSW $100 a year to engage in after-school, weekend and school holiday sports and active recreation activities. 

The NSW Government has allocated $207 million for the rebate over four years. 

According to Minister for Sport, Stuart Ayres, the rebate will help achieve NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s goal of reducing child obesity by five per cent over the next 10 years. 

Ms Goward said the government had decided to take a hard stance on the issue because it was “finding it so hard to get down rates of obesity, particularly in children”. 

“We know that if children are obese, they become obese adults, and the best time to head off that obesity is when they’re children. 

“If you can tackle it when they’re young, and get them into the idea of healthy exercise, regular exercise then you’ve got a chance of keeping people within the normal weight range.” 

The rebate is available for each child of school age, meaning families with more than one child will be eligible for multiple rebates. 

The initiative will begin on January 1 next year. For more information, visit the NSW Office of Sport website at https://sport.nsw.gov.au